Hours and Doors

Dear Diary,

In telling you at such great length about the parks of north-central Seattle the past two days, incredible though it may seem, I left something out.  As I've told you before, Seattle parks have two main schedules, open either 4 A.M. to 11:30 P.M. or 6 A.M. to 10 P.M.  In the "NE" parks I covered earlier, the shorter 6 A.M. schedule is pretty common:

• Albert Davis Park
• Laurelhurst Playfield
• Matthews Beach
• Northacres Park
• Ravenna Park
• University Playground

This schedule is much less common in southern "N":

• Gas Works Park

Another schedule, unknown in "NE", is more common in "N":  parks open 24 hours.  This applies to:

• Green Lake Park
• Sunnyside Ave N Boat Ramp
• Wallingford Steps

And as in "NE" Jackson Park has a unique schedule, in "N" the Woodland Park Rose Garden does:  7 A.M. to 10 P.M.

Of course, most of Jackson Park is managed by a concessionaire.  This is also true of the rose garden, of the zoo and lawn bowling greens in Woodland Park, and of the golf course in Green Lake Park.

The coronavirus has wrought massive changes in these schedules.  Sunnyside Ave N Boat Ramp has gone from 24 to 0 hours; the Woodland Park Zoo and Rose Garden, both run by a single outfit, are also closed.  I'm not sure about the lawn bowling; the Green Lake Golf Course, like the Jackson Park one, seems to be modifying its methods but not its hours.

Also, however, there's the extremely soft new closing time, 8 P.M., for the big and popular parks.  In "NE" this applies only to Magnuson Park, where I don't remember seeing the signs recently, so I'd thought it was over with, but no, in "N" it's alive and well.  The following parks I've discussed in those two pages theoretically close at 8:

• Gas Works Park
• Green Lake Park
• Woodland Park

If you'll remember, dear Diary, I mentioned Green Lake Park restrooms as open or closed up to 10 P.M., and nobody bothered me.

Now that Green Lake Park has a closing time, it needs an opening time, but I haven't been able to find it.  Maybe it's now officially closed 24 hours, like the Sunnyside boat ramp.  (EDIT 10/19 - Nope.  Rachel Schulkin, communications manager for Seattle's Department of Parks and Recreation, told me long ago now that Green Lake Park, while not open 24 hours, opens at 4:30 A.M.)

To switch topics.  I was supposed to go south today; what happened?  I woke up, saw rain, and got lazy.  Rainy days I spend mostly in a place where there's nowhere to sit, so the previous days had been hard.  Soon after I got to the day's first park I made a deal with myself:  look at the local restrooms, and I could goof off the rest of the day (which was already drying out).  What with the apparent return of unpredictable closures, I meant today to bring back door shots, but Blogspot won't let me upload pictures today, lucky for you, dear Diary.

Executive summary:  Burke-Gilman Playground Park either opened really late or closed, otherwise normal.

Burke-Gilman Playground Park, 8:55 A.M., closed.

Lower Ravenna Park, 10:33 A.M., open.

Upper Ravenna Park, 11:41 A.M., open.

Cowen Park, 12:04 P.M., closed.

University Playground, 12:32 P.M., closed.

Still no water from the water fountains at lower Ravenna and Cowen Parks and University Playground.

South tomorrow, I hope.  Coming soon:  Ballard.